Travel scams to avoid · Japon

Hi everyone,

I want to share an experience that really knocked the wind out of me and I hope it won’t ruin my long-awaited trip to Japan.

I recently used the services of a travel planner, Hima Voyage, which I found on social media, to organize my family vacation in Japan.

Unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing and frustrating, marked by a blatant lack of professionalism.

The major problems appeared when I received the itinerary: the proposed route was completely illogical in relation to the accommodation locations, forcing us to make much longer daily trips than necessary, with duplicate days suggesting a poorly done copy-paste sent to others.

She didn’t take into account the high-traffic days for the places we wanted to visit at all.

No personalized or concrete tips or advice were provided. Most of her “recommendations” were generic copy-pastes you can find anywhere on social media.

Faced with such a lack of optimization and logic, I’m forced—with less than 4 months until the trip—to start from scratch and completely reorganize my trip myself. This service, sold as an organizational aid, turned into a huge waste of time and money (825 euros down the drain).

I feel scammed and deeply disappointed by this service. I strongly recommend being extremely cautious before entrusting your travel plans to any “travel planner” found on social media.

Hello, I’m currently in Japan, in Osaka, and we just avoided a scam I wasn’t familiar with. We were in the tall tower in Tennoji when we were approached by two Japanese guys around 20 years old. One, speaking broken English, asked us to make a video for his friend who’s in the hospital. The scam involves distracting you to steal your phone or later asking for money for this so-called friend, while the other stays in the background and keeps an eye on our surroundings. We obviously refused, pretending we didn’t speak English, and they left. But after 10 minutes, they came back, this time translating with his phone. After looking it up online, they call this the "sick friend scam"—used to ask for money. I’ve been coming to Japan twice a year for 15 years and had never seen this before. Also, I’ve noticed some aggressive behavior from a few Japanese people toward tourists—shoving in stores, a 1000¥ fee for luggage when taking the train from the airport, and terrible service in some hotels. Japan plans to require an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) in 2025 for entry, which will need to be applied for and paid for online, along with a surveillance app. The exact date isn’t known yet, and Europe is protesting, considering reciprocity if necessary. Let’s see if this gets canceled, as the new prime minister seems to be backtracking.

Bonjour à tous les amateurs du JAPON,

Ne commandez jamais un voyage francophone au JAPON, avec l'agence allemande

BCT-Toursitik - scince 1993 Bonner Str. 37, 53721 Siegburg Germany

www.bct-toursitik.com info@bct-toursitik.com

J'avais réservé et payé un voyage de 24 jours en circuit accompagné francophone au JAPON (du 22 mars au 14 avril 2015), avec cette agence, et j'avais pris les vols moi même (comme convenu avec eux). Et l'agent avait confirmé, que ce voyage était "DEPART GARANTI", et circuit aussi. Donc je fais confiance. Le 15/12/14, je reçois une lettre de leur part me signifiant, que ce circuit était supprimé, pour cause de "trop faible participation", donc, me voila avec des vols pour TOKYO, aller/retour, sans circuit, sans hôtel, rien quoi .... seulement les vols.

En regardant leur site, il est marqué, pour ce circuit " A la découverte du Japon " ayant lieu du 22.03.2015 au 14.04.2015, que ce circuit est "COMPLET". Ce sont des MENTEURS, ceci pour faire croire aux gens, que cette agence marche bien. D'après certains renseignements reçus, cette agence ne marche plus, et essaie d'attirer des pigeons, et leur prendre leur pognon de cette façon. Donc, c'est une agence à éviter et à supprimer pour vos voyages au JAPON, ce sont vraiment des arnaqueurs.

José

Svp si est bien possible de comuniquer l'eventualité des arnaques a Tokyo, Kyoto ou Osaka et au Narita apt ou sont (a quelle point de change) les meilluers conditions, ou quelle banque euros vis-a-vis de yeni . Merci pour Votre reponse rapide Emilian